Newspapers / The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, … / May 2, 1991, edition 1 / Page 12
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FCC Warns County Firemen To Stop Misuse Of Radios BY TERRY POPE Brunswick County firefighters were ordered Monday to cut out the small talk on their two-way radios by Brunswick County Fire Marshal Cecil Logan. The crackdown followed a warn ing from the Federal Communica tions Commission that further "ille gal usage of the fire channels" would result in a 30-day suspension of the county's license to operate ra dios on the fire frequency. "We're going to put a stop to it," said Logan, "because we can't af ford to lose our county fire fre quency for 30 days." The FCC no tified Logan Monday morn ing that the county fire bands will be monitored for 90 days as a re sult of a complaint called in to the Washington, D.C., office last week. FCC officials refused to identify who filed the complaint, said Logan. "He said this was a friendly com plaint, but that the next time it would not be," Logan said. Logan estimates that of the coun ty's approximately 800 volunteer firemen approximately 400 have ei ther mobile or hand-held radios that operate on the county's three fire band channels. The complainant told FCC offi cials that local firemen were using the radios to have private conversa tions. During the 90-day monitoring pe riod, Logan has asked that only fire department officers and equipment operators use the radios except dur ing fire emergencies. "I've warned them before. It's been misused, and it's finally caught up with us," said Logan. "What people don't understand is that there's no such thing as a pri vate channel." County fire personnel once used citizens band radios until those air waves became too crowded. South Carolina fire departments restrict the use of fire band channels to just the chief and assistant chief, Logan said. "I'd hate to have to do that," he added. "A lot of firefighters have a lot of money invested in their equipment." FCC officials also did not men tion a particular fire department or county location where the com plaint originated. "I can't really say it's any one de partment more than the other," said Logan. "This is not the first time it's been mentioned," he added. "But this time it's got to sink in good and hard." Brunswick Reactors Make List Of 'Nuclear Lemons' Both reactors at Carolina Power & Light Co.'s Brunswick Nuclear Plant made the top 10 of a list of 20 nuclear plants rated as the "nation's worst" by an anti-nuclear consumer organization. However, CP&L disagrees with the conclusions drawn by the report by Public Citizen, a Washington based advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader. Release of the report, dubbed "Nuclear Lemons," was timed to coincide with the fifth an niversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in the Soviet Union last Friday. CP&L's Brunswick's Unit 2 is ranked first and Unit 1 eighth on the list of 20 commercial reactors the Critical Mass Energy Project said should be shut down of the 111 re actors nationwide. A CP&L unit at the Robiason plant in Hartsville, S.C., ranked 17th, while a reactor at Duke Power Co.'s McGuire plant near Charlotte ranked 14th. CP&L said the report draws in valid conclusions from the statistics gathered, which include incidents reported by plants to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The units arc evaluated in 14 categories relat ed to safety, waste and economy that cover various time periods from 1987 through 1990, with an empha sis on 1989 and 1990. All of the factors were weighted identically, a procedure the utility questioned. "The statistics in these categories DO NOT necessarily correlate with safety of plant operations," a CP&L corporate communications "infobul letin" noted. "Ralph Nader's group has clearly attempted to imply that performance in these categories di rectly relates to plant saifety and there incorrectly judges the nuclear units as 'worst reactors' from a safety perspective." Not all incidents reported to the NRC directly relate to plant safety. CP&L spokesman Elizabeth Bean said that the Southport plant has had no reported incidents in the AT SHALLQTTE POINT BRING HOME THEfBEACON On Sale At VILLAGE MART most serious violation category, safety system failures. Other report ing categories may or may not be safety-related, depending on the na ture of the violation. One reactor at the Brunswick plant was ranked first for frequency of emergency safety or power sys tems activated. Most of those relat ed to automatic shutdowns or "scrams" of the reactor. While sev eral scrams were caused by operator error, none have involved safety emergencies, according to Bean. In the report the Brunswick plant is ranked third in the amount of low-level radioactive waste ship ped. In its corporate bulletin CP&L said that a "major contributor" to rankings in several categories has been extensive plant modifications completed during various outages. The plant said the modifications were made to enhance plant safety and efficiency in the iong term. Pipes and other materials re placed during the modifications had to disposed of as radioactive waste because they carried low levels of radiation. During 1990, the Nuclear Regu latory Commission fined CP&L SI 37,500 for violations. These in cluded the shutdown of both reac tors last May after more than 20 op erators failed required tests, mainly involving new routines on a simula tor. The plant reactivated the two units about two weeks later, after some operators completed retrain ing and retcsted satisfactorily. While the citizens' group is advo cating shutdown of the reactors list ed, the NRC has said it believes that nuclear power plants are safer than in the past because they are under increased scrutiny. The Brunswick units operate at about the industry average in per formance and slightly better than the industry avergae in terms of cost, according to CP&L's 1990 an nual report. AT VARNAMT0WN BRING HOME THE'feBEACON On Sale At BETTY'S MINI-MART Garlic's Serious Side: More Than A Condiment BY JOY ASCHENBACH National Geographic News Service Garlic, oncc believed to fend off ancicnt demons, may someday ward off modern killer diseases. "We're trying to develop new foods that will help prevent cells from becoming cancerous," ^ays Herbert Pierson, who heads the National Cancer Institute's year-old "designer foods" program. Garlic, part of the lily family along with onions and chives, is "a good candidate to be first" to be proved successful, Pierson says. "Garlic is the one we're going after. It is consumed all over the world, and already has a large data base of results in animals. None of the other foods comes close. ' Research is centered on garlic, linseed, licorice root, citrus fruit, and members of the parsley family. In designing cancer-preventive foods, a program still in its infancy, scientists are looking at synergistic effccls, combining certain com pounds for greater efficacy. Food technologists, for example, "would formulate a food and load it with the right garlic combination," Pier son explains. "Chopping, steaming, food-pro cessing does miraculous things to garlic," he tells National Geo graphic. "Undisturbed, the garlic bulb has limited medicinally active com pounds," says Eric Block of the State University of New York at Albany, who is an authority on gar lic's chemistry. "Cutting triggers the formation of a cascade of com pounds that are quite reactive and participate in a complex sequence of chemical reactions. Ultimately an amazing collection of chemical compounds is produced." Garlic unleashes at least 100 sul fur-containing compounds. Garlic's sulfur compounds arc linked to its medicinal uses. Block is analyzing the effectiveness of a compound that he and his colleagues call "ajoene" in preventing blood from clotting. Studies in Italy and northeastern China showed that the risk of stom ach cancer among people declined as their consumption of garlic, onions, and scallions increased, re ports William J. Blot of the cancer institute. Garlic may also inhibit breast cancer, says John Milner of Penn sylvania State University. Substan tial amounts of aged garlic-extract powder were fed to laboratory rats that had been treated with a cancer causing chemical. The garlic significantly delayed the onset of mammary tumors. "In some studies, we observed a 70 per cent reduction in the number of tu mors," Milncr says. 'This marked reduction places a whole new em phasis on the importance of this condiment in our diet." Besides its potential for cancer prevention, garlic may help lower the risk of heart disease, protect cells against radiation, pollution, and aging, and stimulate the im mune function, says Robert I-San Lin, who organized the "First World Congress on the Health Signifi cance of Garlic and Garlic Con stituents," in Washington last August. Fifty scientists from 15 countries compared garlic-research results. Significant studies are being con ducted in China, Japan, India, and Germany as well as the United States. The Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans arc among the largest con sumers of garlic in the world. Americans use more than 250 mil lion pounds a year, most of it California grown. In a study in India, scientists re ported that the death rate was sub stantially reduced among 222 heart patients who drank daily doses of garlic juice in milk. But Lin cautions people not to use any form of garlic until it is proved safe and effective, and to consult health professionals. Exces sive amounts of raw garlic can cause anemia and inflammation of the digestive tract. AFFECTIONATELY CALLED the "stinking rose ," garlic is taken seriously today by scientitst world wide, who are styding its potential for reducing the risk of heart disease and preventing cells from be coming cancerous. Once cut, garlic produces sulfur-contining compounds, which are liked to its medicinal uses. A clove or two of cookcd garlic a day can't hurt and may help, Lin says. "I eat pickled garlic as a snack. It's crunchy and tasty, like a roasted almond or peanut. I average a clove a day." In Germany, garlic pills are popular. Pills and pickled garlic normally do not produce fresh-garlic breath. Although garlic is called the "stink ing rose," it gives off little or no odor until cut or crushed. And its odor is not critical to its health ben efits. Garlic-and-health research has in tensified worldwide in the past five years, but garlic has been used medicinally for at least 4,000 years. Garlic is mentioned 22 times in the Egyptian Codex Ebers, a medical papyrus dating to about 1500 B.C. It lists garlic as an effective remedy for a variety of ailments such as heart problems, headaches, bites, worms, and tumors. During the ancient Olympic games in Grecce, athletes were said to swallow garlic as a stimulant. The Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder cited 61 therapeutic uses for garlic. Mohammed, founder of the Islamic religion, recommended it for stings and bites. Traditional herbal doctors in China prescribed, for numerous ail ments, garlic cloves aged in vinegar for two to three years Although garlic has many mar vclous attributes, Lin says, it is a myth that garlic makes skin beauti ful and bodies well-proportioned. "GcxxJ service, good coverage, good price - That's State Farm insurance DWIGHT FLANAGAN Phone 754-9923 Jet. 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Other customary words count as one. SEND TO: THE BRUNSWICK&BEACON CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING DEPT. P.O. BOX 2558. SHALLOTTE, NC 28459 (91 9)754-6890
The Brunswick Beacon (Shallotte, N.C.)
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May 2, 1991, edition 1
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